15 shot, 1 killed at a bar in downtown St. Paul overnight shooting

St. Paul police are investigating an overnight shooting that left one dead and 14 others wounded Sunday.

Multiple 911 callers "frantically begged for help," reporting shots fired in a busy bar on West Seventh Street, about a block away from the Xcel Energy Center.

At 12:15 a.m. at the Seventh Street Truck Park bar, police found a "chaotic scene" and 15 people with gunshot wounds. After securing the area, officers worked with good Samaritans to aid the wounded before St. Paul fire medics were able to enter the scene safely, according to police.

"There were gunshot wound victims lying in the street outside the bar," Steve Linders, public information officer for the St. Paul Police Department, said. "There were gunshot wound victims lying on the sidewalk outside the bar. There were gunshot wound victims lying on the floor inside the bar."

A woman in her 20s was pronounced dead at the scene; 14 others were taken to the hospital and are expected to live.

Police believe there are multiple shooters involved in the incident.

This is the 32nd homicide of 2021 in St. Paul.

The State Patrol, Metro Transit police, Ramsey County Sheriff's Office and Maplewood authorities have all been assisting with the shooting and its aftermath.

"As you can imagine," Linders said, "something like this takes up a lot of resources, so some of those other agencies actually took 911 calls in our city while we were dealing with this tragedy."

This is an ongoing homicide investigation. As of 7 a.m., the scene is still being processed for evidence and witness interviews are underway. Police said there will be a shooting reconstruction, too.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner will perform an autopsy to determine the specific cause of death and identify the deceased woman in the coming days.

No one is in custody.

St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell said he doesn't remember a shooting with anything close to this number of victims in St. Paul during his three decades of service in the city. Mayor Melvin Carter also expressed his shock:

Police believe others may be hurt and were not taken to the hospital. If you were also hurt, or if you have any information regarding the incident you are encouraged to call 651-266- 5650.

“My heart breaks for the woman who was killed, her loved ones and everyone else who was in that bar this morning,” Saint Paul Chief of Police Todd Axtell said. “In an instant, they found themselves caught in a hellish situation. I want them to know that we have the best investigators in the country, and we won’t stop until we find the people responsible for this madness. We will do our part to hold them accountable.”

This is a developing story. Continue to check back at kstp.com for more information as it becomes available.

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My Commentary on this.

This happened down the hill from my place and this comes as a bit of a shock. There have been people getting shot over here, that happens regularly, as if each shooting were retaliatory, and nearly all of them are. This to me has all the hallmarks of a gang hit, and the funniest thing about all of it, is that whenever a person of color, or a group of people of color engage in this sort of thing, they never call it a mass shooting, because the narrative is more important than the truth.

You want to stop the gang violence? Stop raising gangsters.

But I digress. If this were white people killing white people, they would have names and faces and all manner of updates every 15 minutes, but when it’s a person of color, or a particular ethnicity, the media is silent.

We made national news with this one. Things are not getting better folks. They are getting a lot worse.